This month has served as a good reminder to me that it’s very easy to let life get in the way of writing. When you have things in your real life (like friends, family, a paying job, hobbies, etc.) that demand your attention, it becomes all too easy to put off writing. No one forces you to sit in front of your computer and turn those images and thoughts in your mind into a coherent story.

But they do force you to show up at the office when you’re scheduled. And they do expect you to go to the in-laws’ for [insert relevant holiday here]. Writing, until it’s what you do for a living or something you do under contract, is something that is almost entirely motivated by you.

Which is why it sometimes disappears. You want to write that novel. Or that short story. Or that blog post. But when something has to give, it’s all too easy for writing to be what goes. (Just like for non-writers the daily trip to the gym might be the thing that goes, because it just can’t compete with a pending work deadline.)

I somewhat routinely sit down and ask myself what’s important to me and where I want to be. But it’s easy, easy, easy to forget what’s on that list when I’m caught up in the daily slog of just trying to survive.

I think that’s where all that advice about writing down your goals and carrying the list around in your wallet comes from.

Because, if you don’t keep those goals in front of you, if you don’t remind yourself what you really want in life, it’s all too easy for five years to have passed and you to be no closer to what you really wanted. (And, often, even further away from it than you were before…)

So, that’s my thought for the day. I once again have to pay attention to that job that pays the bills.

Hope those of you who celebrate it had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday.